“I think we need to think differently about how we provide care to the community, and we need to look at innovative and new models of care.”

Since the introduction of registration in Australia in 2018 and this year in Aotearoa New Zealand, paramedics are increasingly working across a variety of healthcare settings, not just jurisdictional ambulance services. Both locally and around the world, various primary, community or extended paramedic models of care are being implemented that utilise a highly qualified paramedic workforce that is uniquely placed to support existing health infrastructure to deliver responsive, flexible, high-quality, and affordable primary and community healthcare services.

Such models provide the foundations for the expansion in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand of innovative contemporary care paradigms that respect and value the clinical contribution of paramedics as partners in care.

The College's Advocacy and Government Relations Lead Michelle Murphy ASM talked on ABC Riverland AM about the potential for paramedics to bolster health service provision in rural, remote and regional areas through expanded models of community health care.

“Having grown up in a rural area myself, we face lots of health challenges in having the same access, not having the same quality of care as our city counterparts,” Ms Murphy said. “We've got an untapped resource here to try and boost the health services that are available in regional areas.

“There are lots of regional and rural communities that would really that benefit from a range of different health practitioners to provide the care that they need … it's really about providing the best care to the community and providing that right level of care that our communities are looking for.

“What we're really pushing for is communities to be able to think about the type of community that they are, the healthcare needs of that community, and then having the opportunity to bring into that community a range of different health care practitioners that might suit those needs.”

Listen to the full interview from ABC Riverland.